Hawkanson Named To Top Post At Guthrie

March 01, 1996|By FRANK RIZZO; Courant Staff Writer

David Hawkanson, who guided the Hartford Stage Company from a half-million-dollar deficit in the mid-1980s to a surplus when he left two years ago, is the new executive director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, one of the nation's largest and oldest regional theaters.

Hawkanson, who starts his new position May 1, will join the Guthrie's new artistic director, Joe Dow- ling, the former head of Dublin's Abbey Theatre.

The 33-year-old Guthrie, which has an annual budget of $11.5 million, has a 1,300-seat mainstage theater as well as a small laboratory theater. Hawkanson replaces Edward A. Martenson, who had been there for 10 years.

Since leaving Hartford, Hawkanson, now a resident of Sante Fe, N.M., has been a consultant with the New York-based National Arts Stabilization and has been adviser to the Crossroads Theater Company in New Brunswick, N.J., and the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Hawkanson, who was born in Duluth, Minn., began his theatrical career in the '70s at the Guthrie, where he was associate manager. While there, Hawkanson met Mark Lamos, a Guthrie actor who would later team with Hawkanson in running Hartford Stage.